Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Energy Transfer Partners | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide PA
ET Pleads No Contest to “Crimes” for ME, Revolution Pipelines
Loathsome and disgusting shale energy hater Josh Shapiro, Attorney General for Pennsylvania (running for governor), announced on Friday that he finally bullied Energy Transfer into pleading “no contest” (meaning they don’t admit to a darned thing) in a so-called criminal case against the company for a series of accidents affecting construction for both the Revolution and Mariner East pipelines. Shapiro brought the case–a case that converts accidents into crimes–in order to burnish his credibility with the wacko left in his own party. Now he has a “victory” to run on–and everyone in Pennsylvania is the poorer because of it.
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Earlier this week, Energy Transfer (ET), the builder of the mighty Mariner East pipelines and owner/expander of the Marcus Hook refinery, issued its second quarter update. The company had plenty of positive news to report, including net income of $1.33 billion, a $700 million increase from the same period last year. In July, the company hit a new record high for the amount of NGLs flowing through the Mariner East pipeline system. It has also found a way to squeeze another roughly 10,000 barrels per day of NGL exports out of Marcus Hook.
While drilling in Chester County in August 2020 in the Marsh Creek State Park area, Energy Transfer’s (ET) Mariner East 2X pipeline experienced an “inadvertent return”–nontoxic drilling mud coming up out of the ground where it’s not supposed to (see 
In March MDN told you that the Deputy Chief Administrative Law Judge of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) issued a ruling against the now completed Mariner East 2 pipeline project, assessing a $51,000 fine on the project (see 
Last October Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who is now running for governor, indicted Energy Transfer with 48 enviro-crimes related to the building of the Mariner East pipeline project (see 
Energy Transfer (ET) has signed a fifth customer to accept shipments of LNG produced by ET’s yet-to-be-constructed LNG export facility in Lake Charles, Louisiana, located on the Calcasieu ship channel. Yesterday (yes, on a Sunday), ET issued a press release to announce a 25-year deal with China Gas to purchase 0.7 million tonnes (MT) of LNG per year on a free-on-board (FOB) basis. Added with the other deals, ET has now pre-sold 5.8 MT per year of the site’s planned capacity to produce 16.45 MT per year, meaning 35% of the capacity is now spoken for. More than a third of the way there!
The radicals of the Clean Air Council (CAC) are claiming a (very small) victory in their campaign against processing NGLs at the Marcus Hook refinery located near Philadelphia. CAC is CACkling that they have forced Energy Transfer, builder of the mighty Mariner East (ME) pipeline system (a pipeline that CAC couldn’t stop), to back down on how permits are issued for the Marcus Hook facility–the place where NGLs from ME end up for processing and loading for export. The end result is…well…not much. Nothing will really change. The same volume of NGLs will still flow to Marcus Hook, and the same volume of NGLs will be loaded onto ships and exported to other countries. The only thing that changes is that ET spends more time and pays more money to obtain a single large permit instead of two separate, smaller permits. We’ll explain.
As we told you last week, Energy Transfer, during its first quarter update, spoke about the now-completed Mariner East pipeline system that flows NGLs, including ethane, propane, and butane, from eastern Ohio and southwestern Pennsylvania all the way to southeastern PA and the Marcus Hook terminal (see 
Energy Transfer, one of the biggest pipeline and midstream companies in the U.S., issued its quarterly update yesterday. Of particular interest to us was the honorable mention the Mariner Easter (ME) project received. Construction of the final phase of the Mariner East project was completed in 1Q22, bringing Energy Transfer’s total NGL capacity on the Mariner East pipeline system to more than 365,000 barrels per day, including ethane. NGLs, including those flowing through the ME system, along with LNG, were the two dominant themes running through yesterday’s update.
Another day, another deal from Energy Transfer (ET) in signing up customers to accept shipments of LNG produced by ET’s yet-to-be-constructed LNG export facility in Lake Charles, Louisiana located on the Calcasieu ship channel. Yesterday we told you ET had signed up Singapore’s Gunvor to accept 2.0 million tonnes (MT) per year (see 
Pipeline giant Energy Transfer (builder of the Rover and Mariner East pipelines here in the M-U) is planning a large-scale LNG export facility in Lake Charles, Louisiana located on the Calcasieu ship channel. The project will convert Energy Transfer’s existing Lake Charles LNG import and regasification terminal to become an LNG export facility. In March, ET announced it had signed a pair of 20-year deals with ENN, a Chinese company, to deliver a total of 2.7 million tonnes (MT) per year to the Chinese Communists (see 
Pipeline giant Energy Transfer (builder of the Rover and Mariner East pipelines here in the M-U) is planning a large-scale LNG export facility in Lake Charles, Louisiana located on the Calcasieu ship channel. The project will convert Energy Transfer’s existing Lake Charles LNG import and regasification terminal to become an LNG export facility. Yesterday ET announced it has signed a pair of 20-year deals with ENN, a Chinese company, to deliver a total of 2.7 million tonnes (mt) per year to the ChiComms (Chinese Communists).
The ongoing tiff between the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and Energy Transfer (ET) over a drilling mud spill in Ohio back in 2017 (five years ago!) has become a steamy, cheesy plotline for an episode of the TV series Dallas. We’re talking about the original Dallas series from the 1980s with Larry Hagman and storylines of “who’s jumping into bed with whom.” FERC is faulting ET for creating a company culture of drill and build fast that led to a contract worker adding diesel fuel to a stuck drill bit in an effort to work it free, fining the company a staggering $40 million for the presence of diesel in a drilling mud spill. ET says the diesel situation was the result of a rogue contract worker (a foreman) under pressure and distracted by rumors of another foreman sleeping with the wife of one of his workers. No, we’re not kidding. You can’t make this stuff up.
Earlier this week the Deputy Chief Administrative Law Judge of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) issued a ruling against the now completed Mariner East 2 pipeline project, assessing a $51,000 fine on the project. Which is relatively minor considering the project has already been fined by the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) more than $20 million. This latest parting shot at the now-done NGL pipeline project levied for being too loud and not doing enough to communicate with residents in an apartment complex near where the pipeline was doing construction work in Delaware County.
Even though construction is completed for the Mariner East pipeline system, anti-fossil fuelers are still lying about the project and its status. Energy Transfer said during its recent quarterly update that Mariner East is in the process of being commissioned, i.e. tested (see